Kenzo x H&M in designer collaboration

H&M will team up with Parisian fashion house Kenzo for this year’s designer collaboration. Find out what Creative Directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon have to say about Kenzo x H&M.

26 May 2016

Interview: Mattie Kahn

Ever since the #HMBalmaination hysteria calmed down, we’ve been
taking guesses on who will be the next H&M guest designer. And
today – finally – H&M announced that its next designer
collaboration will be with Kenzo. Launching worldwide in selected
stores and online on November 3, the collection will feature clothes
and accessories for both men and women. H&M Magazine spoke
to Creative Directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim to find out more
about Kenzo x H&M.

WHEN H&M CAME TO YOU WITH THIS IDEA, HOW DID YOU REACT?
Carol Lim: ”We were really excited. Obviously, we’re the latest in a
line of a lot of incredible people. We were like, ‘We’re in great company!’”

WERE YOU NERVOUS? Humberto Leon: ”No. We trust ourselves. And
we trust each other. You know, I say, “What about this?” And Carol is
like, ‘Well, what if we did it this way?’ It’s us, feeding off of each other.”

Carol Lim: ”I can really say we don’t get nervous anymore. We get
excited—to start thinking, to start planning, to start asking
ourselves, ‘Okay, so what do we want to talk about this time?’ What it
comes down to is figuring out, okay, what message do we want to send
with this collection?”

AND WHAT DID YOU DECIDE? Humberto Leon: ”We wanted to really
tell the story of the brand and of us. Together with H&M, we will
invite all the customers and fans to the real Kenzo world.

We wanted to really tell the story of the brand and of us.

Humberto Leon, Creative Director, Kenzo

When pressed, even exuberant maximalists Humberto Leon and Carol Lim
can pare down what drives them. Lim swears—it’s very simple. It’s what
inspired them to launch global fashion emporium Opening Ceremony in
2002. It’s what spurred them to embrace new opportunities at KENZO,
taking over the storied French fashion house in 2011. It’s the reason,
Lim explains, that she and Leon said, “‘Yes,’ right away, ‘Yes’” to
the chance to launch an H&M collaboration. “Our philosophy
is this,” Lim says. “We’re curious.” It’s a shared impulse—a
fascination with newness, a reverence for tradition—that has united
them from the start. Both students at the University of California,
Berkeley, the two obsessed over clothes and food and art and music.
“Even at the time, we were always trying to get to the bottom of what
we loved—whether it was our favourite band or some dish we liked,” Lim
remembers. “We care a lot and still care a lot about what is authentic.”

Leon and Lim wrapped up at school and moved to New York within six
months of each other, working in fashion but not yet where they wanted
to be in the business. “So, we took a trip to Hong Kong to visit in
fact the friend who had introduced us in the first place,” Lim says.
They fell for the pulse of the metropolis—a buzz that reminded them of
New York. The place to them seemed to be full of people who “were just
creating and putting themselves out there,” Lim says. “It felt like a
very bubbling time in New York and in Hong Kong.” And Leon and Lim
wanted in. By the time they landed in New York, the idea for Opening
Ceremony had taken root. And what was once a downtown concept shop and
cool-kid hang out has since evolved into a beloved multi-national tribe.

Kenzo noticed. Five years ago, executives in Paris tapped Leon and
Lim to helm the atelier. The duo has pioneered their own idea of
fashion ever since. Leon and Lim revel in the intrepid. They believe
in the idiosyncratic. And while some may once have wondered what moved
them to embroider a tiger face onto a sweatshirt and send it down a
runway, no one is puzzled anymore. Four years later, the sweatshirt is
itself a fashion icon.

Kenzo really created a new way for women to dress.

Carol Lim, Creative Director, Kenzo

Leon and Lim still like to think of themselves as outsiders,
especially in France and at least because it’s a stance that befits
the brand. Kenzo Takada stormed Paris in 1970 to launch the label. He,
too, Lim stresses, was once a fresh face on the scene.

“He was the first Asian designer to come into Paris and design for
women,” Lim says. “Kenzo really created a new way for women to dress.”
His clothes bloomed with colour. They were explosive. They made, Leon
adds, an impression. More even than his exact silhouettes or patterns,
it’s that spirit of enthusiasm that Leon and Lim have carried over
into their own collections for Kenzo. “At the end of the day, the
product has to be amazing and people have to want to buy it and wear
it—not just for the story, but for how it looks on,” Leon says.
“People nowadays have so many options for what they want to wear and
how they want to express themselves and that’s great. It just means we
have to be that much more attentive and to continue to makes clothes
that people can get excited about.”

Ann-Sofie Johansson, Creative Advisor at H&M, has no doubt
they’ll pull it off. “We can’t wait to share with everyone the world
of Kenzo x H&M with all of its creativity, fun and love of
fashion,” she said.

The future—it looks bright.

AT H&M AND AT KENZO, WHAT DEFINES A COMPLETE COLLECTION? HOW DO
YOU KNOW YOU’VE NAILED IT? Humberto Leon: ”We like to make sure
each piece [in the collection] has its own value and feels special,
but at the same time that the collection as a whole feels really
united. That means people should be as excited to own a t-shirt as
they are to own a dress. Each piece should feel deliberate.”

Carol Lim: ”Yes, and, overall, it’s always about realising strengths
and weaknesses. We know what we’re good at and what we can bring. We
know what the team at Kenzo is good at and what they can do. We try to
give everyone that space to be creative. And then it becomes about
letting there be a dialogue between those perspectives. Sometimes,
it’s really easy. And sometimes, it’s hard because there are multiple
points of view involved. But that’s good! Ultimately, you work it out.”

WHO’S YOUR DREAM CUSTOMER FOR THE COLLECTION? Carol Lim: ”I
think a dream customer is a new customer. We don’t have one girl in
mind. And we never have. The more people that discover the brand and
come to love the rich history behind the brand and what we’ve
created—to us, that’s exciting.”

We can’t wait to share with everyone the world of Kenzo x
H&M.

Ann-Sofie Johansson, Creative Advisor,
H&M

YOU’VE WORKED TOGETHER FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS NOW AND FIVE YEARS AT
KENZO. HOW HAVE YOUR INDIVIDUAL ROLES EVOLVED OVER TIME?
Humberto Leon: ”Funnily, we started out with our own separate roles,
but I think over time we’ve sort of merged our responsibilities.”

Carol Lim: ”It’s like when you play that video game, Galaga. Two
spaceships can join together and become a bigger and more powerful
spaceship. That’s us!”

AT THE END OF THE DAY, HOW DO YOU FORCE YOURSELVES TO UNWIND?
Carol Lim: ”Humberto has twin girls and I have two young kids myself,
so at the end of the day, we’re feeding, washing, and reading kids’
stories, which I secretly love. That feels like a really lucky end to
the day. But it often doesn’t end at that point, because we pick up
where we left off at work. Still, that break and that time with our
families is really, really precious to me.”

”Even if it’s not traditionally relaxing, It’s a nice way to unwind.
Or, it’s at least a different kind of labour than what we do during
the day. The truth is, because Humberto and I have been friends for so
many years, our work and all the projects that we do—we really have
fun. We have a lot of fun. We’ve always said that when it isn’t fun
anymore or we don’t see that we can contribute in a way that feels
real and authentic and exciting anymore, we’ll do something else. But
for now and for as far into the future as I can see, we love what we
do. It’s just who we are as people. We like to do a lot.”

WORSHIPPERS OF COLOUR THAT YOU ARE, IS THERE ANY SHADE YOU SECRETLY
HATE? Humberto Leon: ”No way. We love them all. It’s just a
matter of when the best moment is to release it into the world. All of
them—their time will come.”

KENZO

1939 Kenzo Takada is born in Himeji, Japan 1964 Kenzo Takada
moves to Paris 1972 Kenzo holds his first fashion show in
Paris 1983 Kenzo introduces menswear 1988 Kenzo launches
his first perfume for women 1999 Kenzo Takada presents his final
show 2003 Antonio Marras is hired as Artistic Director
2011 Carol Lim and Humberto Leon are appointed Artistic
Directors 2016 On November 3, Kenzo x H&M launches worldwide

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